Water ski tow rope



Jan. 30, 1962 3, PRICE 3,018,753

WATER SKI TQW ROPE Filed Oct. 19, 1960 Roland 6. Price INVENTOR.

This invention relates to a novel and useful water ski tow rope assembly and is specifically adapted to provide a means whereby a water skier or the like may take up slack which occurs in the tow rope by which he is being pulled.

Water skiers and the like utilizing a flexible tow rope secured to the end of a draft vehicle such as a boat for propelling themselves over the surface of a body of water are often confronted with the problem of slack forming in the tow rope. When slack forms in a tow rope the: speed of the water skier rapidly decreases and if the speed of a water skier falls below a critical point which could be defined as his planing speed, he will begin to sink beneath the surface of the water. When this occurs it is extremely diflicult for the water skier to maintain his balance and should he retain his grasp on the rear end of the two rope and the slack therein be suddenly taken up by his rapid decrease in speed, the water skier is apt to -incur personal injury by the sudden tensioning of the water ski two rope. Of course, if excess slack develops in a tow rope the water skier can let go of the tow rope in order not to receive the sudden shock when the slack in the tow rope is suddenly removed, but this necessitates that the boat behind which the water skier is skiing will have to make a slow turn around the fallen water skier in order that the latter may again grasp the end of his tow rope. This may not be too troublesome if there is only one skier skiing behind the boat but if there are two skiers skiing behind the boat and one is required to let go of his tow rope, the other skier must also temporarily terminate his ride in order to enable the fallen skier to retrieve the rear end of his tow rope as the boat will be required to slow down to almost a standstill while the fallen skier retrieves his tow rope.

In the past tow ropes have been constructed of materials enabling the tow rope to stretch somewhat in overall length while pulling a skier which of course greatly reduces the possibility of slack forming in the tow line but also gives rise to other and possibly greater undesirable drawbacks. A resilient tow rope does not afford a water skier a rigid point of support from which he may balance him-self and therefore a resilient tow rope is hardly ever used by a water skier desiring to cut rapidly back and forth across the wake of the boat behind which he is being towed.

In slalom skiing the rear end of the tow rope is usually provided with a pair of spaced handgrips which each are secured to the end of the tow rope by means of a single rope section or the like whose opposite ends are secured to the corresponding handgrip and the rear end of the tow rope. By spreading the handgrips of this type of tow rope apart the over-all effective length of the tow rope can be slightly reduced in order to remove a small amount of slack in the tow rope. However, the arm span of a water skier is somewhere around the neighborhood of five feet and therefore a water skier could only shorten the effective length of a water ski rope of this type by a maximum of two and one-half feet by spreading his arms out to their fullest extent.

It is the main object of this invention to provide a water ski tow rope assembly which may be conveniently utilized as a tow rope having either one or two handgrips.

A further object of this invention, in accordance with the preceding object, is to provide a water ski tow rope assembly provided with a means whereby a water skier may, at his discretion, remove a considerable amount of tent slack in a tow rope by shortening the effective length of the tow rope between the towing boat and the handlegrip-s carried by the rear end of the tow rope.

A final object to be specifically enumerated herein is to provide a water ski tow rope assembly which will conform to conventional forms of manufacture, be of simple construction and easy to use so as to provide a device that will be economically feasible, long lasting and relatively trouble free.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of the rear portion of the water ski tow rope of the instant invention showing the handle portions thereof disposed in alternate operating positions;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary enlarged view of a portion of the water ski tow rope assembly, parts of the associated handlegrip being broken away and shown in section; and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of the rear portion of the tow rope assembly showing the manner in which the two handlegrip members may be positioned immediately adjacent each other so as to be used as a single hand grip.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings the numeral 10 generally designates the water ski tow rope assembly of the instant invention which includes a flexible tow rope member 12 whose forward end may be adapted in any convenient manner to be secured to the towing boat.

The water ski tow rope assembly 10 includes a pair of grip means generally designated by the reference numerals 14 and 16 which are interconnected by means of a flexible interconnecting member 18 which may be constructed of the same material as the tow rope 12. Each of the grip means 14 and 16 includes an elongated rodlike member generally designated by the reference numeral 20 which is substantially semi-circular in cross section. Each of the rod-like members 20 comprises a grip portion adapted to be engaged by one of the hands 22 of the water skier 24. A pulley assembly generally referred to by the reference numeral 26 including a generally U- shaped hanger 28 having parallel mounting flanges 30 and a pulley wheel 32 journaled for rotation between the mounting flanges 30 by means of axle pin 34 is also provided with a mounting eye 36 pivotally secured to the bight portion 38 of the hanger 28 as at 46.

The flexible interconnecting member 18 is elongated and is secured to the rear end of the tow rope 12 intermediate its opposite ends as at 42. One end of the flexible interconnecting member 18 is passed through the pulley assembly 26 carried by the grip means 16 and is secured to the handle or rod-like member 20 of the grip means 14 as can best be seen in FIGURE 2 of the drawings. The other end of the flexible interconnecting member 18 is passed through the pulley assembly 26 carried by the grip means 14 and is secured to the handle or rodlike member 20 of the grip means 16. In this maner, the elongated flexible interconnecting member 18 is secured between the grip means 14 and 16 and the rear end of the tow rope 12 in a manner which can best be viewed in FIGURE 1 of the drawings.

Each of the rod-like members 20 is generally semicircular in cross section and is provided with a flat base surface 44 adapted to abut the corresponding surface on the other rod-like member 20. In this mannner, when the rod-like members 20 are disposed in abutting relation, they form a generally cylindrical rod-like member which may readily be grasped by one of the hands 22 of the water skier 24. The pulley assemblies 26 are each secured to the corresponding rod-like member 20 by passing a portion of the flexible interconnecting member 18 ad jacent the corresponding end thereof through the eye 36 and knotting the flexible interconnecting member as at 46 after which the adjacent terminal end of the flexible interconnecting member 18 is passed through a transverse bore 48 formed in the corresponding rod-like member 20 and knotted as at 50, see FIGURE 2. Each of the rod-like members 20 is provided with a recess 52 in the flat surface 44 thereof with which one end of the transverse bore 48 is in communication.

As can best be viewed in FIGURE 3 of the drawings the rod-like handle or grip members 20 may be disposed with their surfaces 44 in surface-to-surface contacting abutting relation in order to form a single cylindrical member adapted to be engaged by a single hand of the water skier 24. When the rod-like members 20 are spaced apart from each other they may each be engaged by one hand 22 of the water skier 24 as can best be illustrated in FIGURE 1 of the drawings. However, the skiers hands 22 can be closely adjacent each other in order to aiford maximum length of the water ski tow rope assembly or they can be spaced slightly apart as illustrated in solid lines in FIGURE 1 in order to take up slack which has formed in the tow rope 12. However, the skiers hands 22 may be moved further apart as illustrated in phantom lines in FIGURE 1 in order to take up a greater amount of slack in the tow line 12. Thus, by the provision of the pulley assemblies 26 and the flexible interconnecting member 18 the water ski tow 4} rope assembly 10 may be utilized at the discretion of the water skier 24 to take up a considerable amount of slack which has formed in the tow rope 12.

The foregoing is considered a illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

A Water ski tow rope assembly comprising a tow rope, a pair of separate handles each adapted to be grasped by a hand of a skier, two pulley assemblies, a first carried by one of said handles and a second carried by the other, and an interconnecting means comprising two elongated, flexible member segments, one segment passing through the first pulley assembly and secured at one end to the handle carrying the second pulley assembly, the other segment passing through the second pulley assembly and secured at one end to the handle carrying said first pulley assembly, the other end of each segment being secured to said tow rope whereby during skiing, by moving said handles apart in a lateral direction relative to the axis of the tow rope, the portion of the tow rope to which the segments are attached is drawn toward the skiier enabling take-up of slack in the rope.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,568,549 Kluttz Sept. 18, 1951 

